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BORDER NEWS
Blanca Echeverri, a children’s author, is the beneficiary of a very rare occurrence.  She is married to a Columbian national who is a permanent resident of the US, and has two US citizen children.  Her husband cannot work in Mexico, where Echeverri is from, and he does not want to raise a family in Colombia.  After their marriage, he moved to Alaska, and Echeverri visited her family by using tourist visas.  However, when she filed for an extension after a car accident in 1997, it was denied and she was deported on Christmas last year.  Now, as a result of pressure from the community, Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) has succeeded in obtaining a tourist visa for Echeverri to return to the US while a private bill he has introduced on her behalf works its way through Congress.  
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US immigration policy has again led to the disruption of a proposed athletic event between US and Iranian athletes.  US attempts to fingerprint a group of Iranian fencers before allowing them to enter caused the fencers to withdraw from the planned competition.  The Iranians had requested a waiver of this requirement, but it was not received in time.  
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David Aguilar, the head of the US Border Patrol recently met with the former mayor of Agua Prieta, Mexico and formed an agreement to work together to fight smuggling rings operating in the area.  The former mayor, Vincent Teran Uribe, had called for all Mexicans who are apprehended in the US to demand a hearing before an Immigration Judge in an effort to draw attention to the problems Agua Prieta suffers because of US border policy.  Part of the new plan to deal with smuggling rings is to move people suspected of involvement in smuggling to other areas of the border so that they will not be deported and end up back in Agua Prieta where they can continue their smuggling efforts.  Officials hope that the new measures will ease pressures on both sides of the border. 
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A van carrying a number of people suspected of being undocumented immigrants drove off a 50 foot cliff near the US-Mexico border in Texas, killing two people and injuring more than a dozen others.  According to a Border Patrol agent who witnessed the accident, the van was in reverse as people were trying to get in.  When a Border Patrol vehicle approached, the driver got in, but the van continued to roll backward, and ended up going off the cliff. 
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According to demographers, current changes in Mexico will result in fewer people trying to cross the border looking for work in the US.  For the past 15 years, more people have been entering the job market in Mexico than there are available jobs, meaning many were forced to emigrate for work.  Now there are growing opportunities for employment, and the birth rate is declining.  Demographers say that while this will not end immigration from Mexico, it will change migration patterns and the reasons for migration.  
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Immigrant advocates in Austin, Texas are upset over INS raids conducted during the Census, when the INS said it would hold off on enforcement activities.  According to the San Antonio INS district director, the only people the agency has targeted are those with criminal records, those suspected of smuggling activities, and those in possession of fraudulent documents.  Advocates, however, wonder if the INS directives on enforcement during the Census have reached local offices.  They also say that the enforcement activities have led to low Census response rates in the area. The San Antonio INS office’s enforcement division ran into hot water  several months ago when they conducted a raid on Indian H-1B workers an Air Force base in the area. The American Immigration Lawyers Association and other groups criticized the INS for allegedly violating the law in conducting the raids. 
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Last week we told readers about a group of Senegalese dancers who disappeared during the middle of their tour of the US.  A representative of the group that sponsored the tour thinks that the dancers are staying with friends in the San Francisco area, where the last performance was.  According to an INS spokesperson, the agency will not be dedicating many resources to searching for the missing dancers.